GOP's Fiorina leading Boxer in California Senate race

Carly Fiorina has pulled ahead of Barbara Boxer — barely — in the California Senate race, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Tuesday.

After trailing Mrs. Boxer since February, when Rasmussen began running hypothetical match-ups, Mrs. Fiorina now leads the Democratic incumbent by a margin of 47 to 42 percent among voters who have decided which candidate to support.

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When factoring in “leaners,” or voters who are only leaning toward a candidate, the Republican Fiorina still leads, but her margin narrows to 48 to 47 percent. Two weeks ago, Mrs. Boxer led 49 to 44 percent when leaners were included. The survey, conducted Monday, has a margin of error of +/- 4 percent.

What’s changed in the past two weeks? One difference is that Mrs. Fiorina has since announced that she supports Proposition 23, which would suspend the state’s stringent climate-change requirements until unemployment drops to 5.5 percent or below for a full year. California’s unemployment rate now hovers around 12 percent.

Mrs. Fiorina, who declined to take a position on the measure as recently as last week’s debate, called Proposition 23 “a Band-Aid fix and an imperfect solution,” but said she’s supporting it anyway because the climate-change law is a “job killer.” Proponents of the measure, including Mrs. Boxer, argue that it will boost the state’s economy by creating clean-energy jobs.